County: Kerry Site name: Carrigeendaniel, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE029–114, KE029–115 Licence number: 06E0037
Author: Laurence Dunne and Karen Buckley, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, 3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry.
Site type: Prehistoric
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 482245m, N 615293m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.276698, -9.725619
As a component part of a pre-planning impact assessment, 38 test-trenches were opened at a proposed development site (PDS) at Carrigeendaniel, on the north-western outskirts of Tralee town. A cluster of four monuments is located within and abutting the PDS along its southern limits: KE029–111 and KE029–116 are located outside the PDS, while KE029–114 and KE029–115, classified in the RMP as ‘enclosures’, are located within the PDS.
The 2m-wide test cuttings, opened with a twenty-tonne track machine with a flat grading bucket, represented 11.5% of the overall area of the PDS.
The topsoil comprised a mid-grey/brown silty clay loam with an average depth of 0.3m. The subsoil across the site comprised a uniform orange/yellow soft sandy silty clay, with frequent protrusions of the parent limestone bedrock.
Eighteen of the test-trenches radiated outwards from around the monuments to establish the extent of the denuded recorded enclosures (KE029–114 and KE029–115) within the PDS and to investigate the presence or potential of external ditches or other extramural activity associated with them.
The extent of the known monuments within the PDS was established and a clear corridor of zero archaeological activity between the two was ascertained. A minimum distance of 45m between the monuments was determined.
Two areas of prehistoric archaeological significance were recorded in the wider trenches, which were extended to reveal the full extent of the archaeology, and are referred to as Areas A and B, for clarity. A total of twenty features were revealed in Area A. These deposits comprised seven cremation pits, eight possible post-holes, one hearth, three pits and one stake-hole. A single cremation pit was recorded in Area B.
Artefacts retrieved during the course of testing were a possible quartz crystal scraper found protruding from the surface of post-hole C9, and a struck limestone pebble was recovered from the shallow cremation pit, C4.
Radiocarbon dates have been applied for but the presence of the seven cremation pits grouped closely together in Area A is indicative of a Bronze Age flat cemetery similar to two other ones found nearby in the recent past.
